Abstract: An artificial neural network is a mathematical model
inspired by biological neural networks. There are several kinds of
neural networks and they are widely used in many areas, such as:
prediction, detection, and classification. Meanwhile, in day to day life,
people always have to make many difficult decisions. For example,
the coach of a soccer club has to decide which offensive player
to be selected to play in a certain game. This work describes a
novel Neural Network using a combination of the General Regression
Neural Network and the Probabilistic Neural Networks to help a
soccer coach make an informed decision.
Abstract: Dengue outbreaks are affected by biological,
ecological, socio-economic and demographic factors that vary over
time and space. These factors have been examined separately and still
require systematic clarification. The present study aimed to investigate
the spatial-temporal clustering relationships between these factors and
dengue outbreaks in the northern region of Sri Lanka. Remote sensing
(RS) data gathered from a plurality of satellites were used to develop
an index comprising rainfall, humidity and temperature data. RS data
gathered by ALOS/AVNIR-2 were used to detect urbanization, and a
digital land cover map was used to extract land cover information.
Other data on relevant factors and dengue outbreaks were collected
through institutions and extant databases. The analyzed RS data and
databases were integrated into geographic information systems,
enabling temporal analysis, spatial statistical analysis and space-time
clustering analysis. Our present results showed that increases in the
number of the combination of ecological factor and socio-economic
and demographic factors with above the average or the presence
contribute to significantly high rates of space-time dengue clusters.
Abstract: This study analyzes the innovative orientation of the
Croatian entrepreneurs. Innovative orientation is represented by the
perceived extent to which an entrepreneur’s product or service or
technology is new, and no other businesses offer the same product.
The sample is extracted from the GEM Croatia Adult Population
Survey dataset for the years 2003-2013. We apply descriptive
statistics, t-test, Chi-square test and logistic regression. Findings
indicate that innovative orientations vary with personal, firm, meso
and macro level variables, and between different stages in
entrepreneurship process. Significant predictors are occupation of the
entrepreneurs, size of the firm and export aspiration for both early
stage and established entrepreneurs. In addition, fear of failure,
expecting to start a new business and seeing an entrepreneurial career
as a desirable choice are predictors of innovative orientation among
early stage entrepreneurs.
Abstract: Flash Floods, together with landslides, are a common
natural threat for people living in mountainous regions and foothills.
One way to deal with this constant menace is the use of Early
Warning Systems, which have become a very important mitigation
strategy for natural disasters.
In this work we present our proposal for a pilot Flash Flood Early
Warning System for Santiago, Chile, the first stage of a more
ambitious project that in a future stage shall also include early
warning of landslides.
To give a context for our approach, we first analyze three existing
Flash Flood Early Warning Systems, focusing on their general
architectures. We then present our proposed system, with main focus
on the decision support system, a system that integrates empirical
models and fuzzy expert systems to achieve reliable risk estimations.
Abstract: In this paper we propose a discrete tracking control of
nonholonomic mobile robots with two degrees of freedom. The
electromechanical model of a mobile robot moving on a horizontal
surface without slipping, with two rear wheels controlled by two
independent DC electric, and one front roal wheel is considered. We
present backstepping design based on the Euler approximate discretetime
model of a continuous-time plant. Theoretical considerations are
verified by numerical simulation.
Abstract: In urban context, urban nodes such as amenity or
hazard will certainly affect house price, while classic hedonic analysis
will employ distance variables measured from each urban nodes.
However, effects from distances to facilities on house prices generally
do not represent the true price of the property. Distance variables
measured on the same surface are suffering a problem called
multicollinearity, which is usually presented as magnitude variance
and mean value in regression, errors caused by instability. In this paper,
we provided a theoretical framework to identify and gather the data
with less bias, and also provided specific sampling method on locating
the sample region to avoid the spatial multicollinerity problem in three
distance variable’s case.
Abstract: In a multi-cultural learning context, where ties are
weak and dynamic, combining qualitative with quantitative research
methods may be more effective. Such a combination may also allow
us to answer different types of question, such as about people’s
perception of the network. In this study the use of observation,
interviews and photos were explored as ways of enhancing data from
social network questionnaires. Integrating all of these methods was
found to enhance the quality of data collected and its accuracy, also
providing a richer story of the network dynamics and the factors that
shaped these changes over time.
Abstract: Soil quality monitoring is a science-based soil
management tool that assesses soil ecosystem health.
A soil monitoring program in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest
city extends from 1995 to the present. The objective of this study was
to firstly determine changes in soil parameters (basic soil properties
and heavy metals) that were assessed from rural land in 1995-2000
and repeated in 2008-2012. The second objective was to determine
differences in soil parameters across various land uses including
native bush, rural (horticulture, pasture and plantation forestry) and
urban land uses using soil data collected in more recent years (2009-
2013).
Across rural land, mean concentrations of Olsen P had
significantly increased in the second sampling period and was
identified as the indicator of most concern, followed by soil
macroporosity, particularly for horticultural and pastoral land. Mean
concentrations of Cd were also greatest for pastoral and horticultural
land and a positive correlation existed between these two parameters,
which highlights the importance of analysing basic soil parameters in
conjunction with heavy metals. In contrast, mean concentrations of
As, Cr, Pb, Ni and Zn were greatest for urban sites. Native bush sites
had the lowest concentrations of heavy metals and were used to
calculate a ‘pollution index’ (PI). The mean PI was classified as high
(PI > 3) for Cd and Ni and moderate for Pb, Zn, Cr, Cu, As and Hg,
indicating high levels of heavy metal pollution across both rural and
urban soils. From a land use perspective, the mean ‘integrated
pollution index’ was highest for urban sites at 2.9 followed by
pasture, horticulture and plantation forests at 2.7, 2.6 and 0.9,
respectively.
It is recommended that soil sampling continues over time because
a longer spanning record will allow further identification of where
soil problems exist and where resources need to be targeted in the
future. Findings from this study will also inform policy and science
direction in regional councils.
Abstract: Beta-glucosidase, chitinase, leucine-aminopeptidase, acid phosphomonoesterase and acetate-esterase enzyme activities in
the soils under the impact of metallurgical industrial activity in Lori
marz (district) were investigated. The results of the study showed that
the activities of the investigated enzymes in the soils decreased with increasing distance from the Shamlugh copper mine, the Chochkan
tailings storage facility and the ore transportation road. Statistical
analysis revealed that the activities of the enzymes were positively
correlated (significant) to each other according to the observation
sites which indicated that enzyme activities were affected by the
same anthropogenic factor. The investigations showed that the soils
were polluted with heavy metals (Cu, Pb, As, Co, Ni, Zn) due to
copper mining activity in this territory. The results of Pearson
correlation analysis revealed a significant negative correlation
between heavy metal pollution degree (Nemerow integrated pollution
index) and soil enzyme activity. All of this indicated that copper
mining activity in this territory causing the heavy metal pollution of
the soils resulted in the inhabitation of the activities of the enzymes
which are considered as biological catalysts to decompose organic
materials and facilitate the cycling of nutrients.
Abstract: Data mining idea is mounting rapidly in admiration
and also in their popularity. The foremost aspire of data mining
method is to extract data from a huge data set into several forms that
could be comprehended for additional use. The data mining is a
technology that contains with rich potential resources which could be
supportive for industries and businesses that pay attention to collect
the necessary information of the data to discover their customer’s
performances. For extracting data there are several methods are
available such as Classification, Clustering, Association,
Discovering, and Visualization… etc., which has its individual and
diverse algorithms towards the effort to fit an appropriate model to
the data. STATISTICA mostly deals with excessive groups of data
that imposes vast rigorous computational constraints. These results
trials challenge cause the emergence of powerful STATISTICA Data
Mining technologies. In this survey an overview of the STATISTICA
software is illustrated along with their significant features.
Abstract: Degradation of agricultural soils has increased rapidly
during the last 20 years due to the indiscriminate use of pesticides
and other anthropogenic activities. Currently, there is an urgent need
of soil restoration to increase agricultural production. Utilization of
sewage sludge or municipal solid waste is an important way to
recycle nutrient elements and improve soil quality. With these
amendments, nutrient availability in the aqueous phase might be
increased and production of healthier crops can be accomplished.
This research project aimed to achieve sustainable management of
tropical agricultural soils, specifically in Puerto Rico, through the
amendment of water treatment plant sludge’s. This practice avoids
landfill disposal of sewage sludge and at the same time results costeffective
practice for recycling solid waste residues. Coriander
sativum was cultivated in a compost-soil-sludge mixture at different
proportions. Results showed that Coriander grown in a mixture of
25% compost+50% Voladora soi+25% sludge had the best growth
and development. High chlorophyll content (33.01 ± 0.8) was
observed in Coriander plants cultivated in 25% compost+62.5%
Coloso soil+ 12.5% sludge compared to plants grown with no sludge
(32.59 ± 0.7). ICP-OES analysis showed variations in mineral
element contents (macro and micronutrients) in coriander plant
grown I soil amended with sludge and compost.
Abstract: In this paper, a new design of spherical robotic system
based on the concepts of gimbal structure and gyro dynamics is
presented. Robots equipped with multiple wheels and complex
steering mechanics may increase the weight and degrade the energy
transmission efficiency. In addition, the wheeled and legged robots are
relatively vulnerable to lateral impact and lack of lateral mobility.
Therefore, the proposed robotic design uses a spherical shell as the
main body for ground locomotion, instead of using wheel devices.
Three spherical shells are structured in a similar way to a gimbal
device and rotate like a gyro system. The design and mechanism of the
proposed robotic system is introduced. In addition, preliminary results
of the dynamic model based on the principles of planar rigid body
kinematics and Lagrangian equation are included. Simulation results
and rig construction are presented to verify the concepts.
Abstract: The objectives of the study were to determine the
marketing mix factors that influencing tourist’s destination decision
making for cultural tourism in the Chonburi province. Both
quantitative and qualitative data were applied in this study. The
samples of 400 cases for quantitative analysis were tourists (both
Thai and foreign) who were interested in cultural tourism in the
Chonburi province, and traveled to cultural sites in Chonburi and 14
representatives from provincial tourism committee of Chonburi and
local tourism experts. Statistics utilized in this research included
frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple
regression analysis. The study found that Thai and foreign tourists
are influenced by different important marketing mix factors. The
important factors for Thai respondents were physical evidence, price,
people, and place at high importance level. For foreign respondents,
physical evidence, price, people, and process were high importance
level, whereas, product, place and promotion were moderate
importance level.
Abstract: The heavy metal pollution degree in the soils around
the Zangezur copper and molybdenum combine in Syunik Marz,
Armenia was assessed. The results of the study showed that heavy
metal pollution degree in the soils mainly decreased with increasing
distance from the open mine and the ore enrichment combine which
indicated that the open mine and the ore enrichment combine were
the main sources of heavy metal pollution. The only exception was
observed in the northern part of the open mine where pollution
degree in the sites (along the open mine) situated 600 meters far from
the mine was higher than that in the sites located 300 meters far from
the mine. This can be explained by the characteristics of relief and air
currents as well as the weak vegetation cover of these sites and the
characteristics of soil structure. According to geo-accumulation index
(I-geo), contamination factor (Cf), contamination degree (Cd) and
pollution load index (PLI) values, the pollution degree in the soils
around the open mine and the ore enrichment combine was higher
than that in the soils around the tailing dumps which was due to the
proper and accurate operation of the Artsvanik tailing damp and the
recultivation of the Voghji tailing dump.
The high Cu and Mo pollution of the soils was conditioned by the
character of industrial activities, the moving direction of air currents
as well as the physicochemical peculiarities of the soils.
Abstract: In this study, the Compressive strength of concretes
made with Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag (GGBS),
Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA), Rice Husk Ash (RHA) and Waste Glass
Powder (WGP) after they were exposed 7800C (exposure duration of
around 60 minutes) and then allowed to cool down gradually in the
furnace for about 280 minutes at water binder ratio of 0.50 was
investigated. GGBS, PFA, RHA and WGP were used to replace up to
20% Portland cement in the control concrete. Test for the
determination of workability, compressive strength and tensile
splitting strength of the concretes were carried out and the results
were compared with control concrete. The test results showed that the
compressive strength decreased by an average of around 30% after
the concretes were exposed to the heating and cooling scenario.
Abstract: In the past few decades, the field of chemistry
education has grown tremendously and researches indicated that after
traditional chemistry instruction students often lacked deep
conceptual understanding and failed to integrate their ideas into
coherent conceptual framework. For several concepts in chemistry,
students at all levels have demonstrated difficulty in changing their
initial perceptions. Their perceptions are most often wrong and don't
agree with correct scientific concepts. This study explored the
effectiveness of intervention discussion sections for a college general
chemistry course designed to apply research on students
preconceptions, knowledge integration and student explanation.
Three interventions discussions lasting three hours on bond energy
and spontaneity were done tested and intervention (treatment)
students’ performances were compared with that of control group
which did not use the experimental pedagogy. Results indicated that
this instruction which was capable of identifying students'
misconceptions, initial conceptions and integrating those ideas into
class discussion led to enhanced conceptual understanding and better
achievement for the experimental group.
Abstract: Theory of interpretation of electromagnetic fields studied in the electrical prospecting with direct current is mainly developed for the case of a horizontal surface observation. However in practice we often have to work in difficult terrain surface. Conducting interpretation without the influence of topography can cause non-existent anomalies on sections. This raises the problem of studying the impact of different shapes of ground surface relief on the results of electrical prospecting's research. This research examines the numerical solutions of the direct problem of electrical prospecting for two-dimensional and three-dimensional media, taking into account the terrain. The problem is solved using the method of integral equations. The density of secondary currents on the relief surface is obtained.
Abstract: Now in some countries of the world the cellular
market is on the point of saturation, in others - positive dynamics of
development kept on. The reasons for it are also different, but there
are united by their general susceptibility to innovation changes, if
they are really innovative. If to take as an example the cellular market
of Kazakhstan it is defined by the low percent of smart phones at
consumers, the low population density, undercapacity of the 3G
channel, and absence of universal access to the LTE technology that
limits dynamical growth of this branch. These moments are
aggravated by failures of starting commercial projects by private
companies which prevent to be implemented and widely adopted to a
new product among consumers. The object of the research is possible
integration of wireless and program technologies at which
introduction the idea can regenerate in an innovation. The analysis of
existing projects in the market and the possible union of the
technologies through a prism of theoretical bases of innovative
activity shows that efficiency of the company by development and
introduction of innovations is possible only thanks to strict
observance of all terms and conditions of the innovative process
which main term is profit. Despite that fact that on a global scale the
innovativeness issue of companies is very popular, there are no
researches about possibility of innovative breaks in the field of
wireless access to the Internet in the cellular market of Kazakhstan.
Abstract: We are facing serious problems related to long-term
depopulation and an aging society with a falling birth rate in Japan. In
this situation, we are suffering from a shortfall in human resources as
well as a shortage of workforce in rural regions. In addition, we are
struggling with a protracted economic slump and excess concentration
of population in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. It is an urgent national
issue to consider how to live in this country and what kind of structure
of society and administration policy is needed. It is necessary to clarify
people’s desire for their way of living and social assistance to be
provided. The aim of this study is to clarify the characteristics of
regional issues and the degree of their seriousness in local
municipalities of Japan. We conducted a questionnaire survey about
regional agenda in all local municipalities in Japan. We obtained
responses concerning the degree of seriousness of regional issues and
degree of importance of policies. Based on the data gathered from the
survey, it is apparent that many local municipalities are facing an
aging population and declining population. We constructed a model to
analyze factors for declining population. Using the model, it was
clarified that a population’s age structure, job opportunities and
income level affect the decline of population. In addition, we showed
the way of the evaluation of state of local municipality.
Abstract: Attributes and methods are the basic contents of an
object-oriented class. The connectivity among these class members
and the relationship between the class and other classes play an
important role in determining the quality of an object-oriented
system. Class cohesion evaluates the degree of relatedness of class
attributes and methods, whereas class coupling refers to the degree to
which a class is related to other classes. Researchers have proposed
several class cohesion and class coupling measures. However, the
correlation between class coupling and class cohesion measures has
not been thoroughly studied. In this paper, using classes of three
open-source Java systems, we empirically investigate the correlation
between several measures of connectivity-based class cohesion and
coupling. Four connectivity-based cohesion measures and eight
coupling measures are considered in the empirical study. The
empirical study results show that class connectivity-based cohesion
and coupling internal quality attributes are inversely correlated. The
strength of the correlation depends highly on the cohesion and
coupling measurement approaches.